Vikings Juniors in the BKA Championship

Last weekend saw Vikings juniors enter the BKA U13 Championship in London.

 The team, along with Mo, Lee and myself left Ely in the school mini bus at 7am.  Yes, that’s right, AM!  Not easy for a saturday.  But we arrived at the Whitgift school ready to play aginst the best U13 teams in the country.  The Whitgift school.  That was where I played for Scotland, you know, in the Commonwealth championships, in 2006.

 Anyway, back to the story.  We were in the morning pool, which apparently had the best teams in it.  It was going to be a tough day of matches, but you learn a lot playing against top quality opposition.  However we weren’t helped by Ant cracking his head wide open on a bench before the first match had even started.  When I say cracked open, I mean cracked open.  If he’d had a brain, it would have been oozing out.  No, not really.  It was a bit of a gash, but he put some ice on it and said he felt ok to play on.  After a discussion with the school officials, and Ant’s parents on the phone, we felt he could play, and get his head checked out later.  (Apparently he got the cut glued later on).  Incidently, I was down meeting the officials at the time, so I missed the incident.

 We then played some games.  The first two games weren’t the best korfball I’ve seen these guys play, but bearing in mind the opposition, and the pressure of the event, they were doing ok.  Jamie S was the captain for the first game, which saw Jamie C score his first ever goal in a real game.  He was obviously delighted, and it was perhaps my favourite moment of the whole day, even though the game was already lost by then.

 Game 2 saw Alex as captain, and Charlotte scoring our only goal as again we lost to a very good team.  To be fair, the other teams were playing really well, and the score did not really reflect how well we were playing.

 By Game 3 we were starting to play good korfball.  Charlotte was the captain.  The defence was working well, which resulted in the other team only scoring two goals against us.  However we only scored one, by Jamie S, and couldn’t quite hold on for a draw.  The boys in this game were doing some great intercepting, but perhaps the size of the court didn’t help as there were still too many loose passes.  Still, it was a performance to be pleased about.

 The last game of the day was against Wildcats, who won without us troubling the scoreboard.  Amy was our captain for this game.  Again we played well, but just couldn’t get the ball in the basket.

 Finally the day was over and it was time for the bus journey home.  Try poking yourself in the eye with a stick for three hours – you’ll have more fun than this bus journey was for me.  We stopped at McDonalds, for food, I thought, but some people seemed to think it was to stock up on things to throw.  Chips, pine cones, scrunched up paper – anything they could lay their hands on.  I’m not scared to name names – Ant, Jamie Smith, Ollie… I will have my revenge.

 And I hope I never hear that song again – Cascada, Every Time We Touch.  Everyone seemed to have it on their phone, and they were all playing it at once!

 During the day, I took loads of great photos – group pictures and action shots.  Look out for them on the website.

 After we came home, Mo phoned me with some news.  Jamie Smith had been voted male MVP of the tournament by a panel of judges, including some of the best junior coaches in the UK.  That means he is one of the best U13 boys in korfball in Britain.  An impressive achievement, but well deserved on his performance throughout the day.  He never stopped trying, even when the game was effectively lost (to be fair, none of the team ever gave up), was a great team player, and scored a good goal.  Well done Jamie.

 My highlights of the day;

Jamie C’s goal.

Jamie S getting MVP.

 My lowlights of the day;

Getting chips thrown at me.

Cascada – Every Time We Touch on repeat.

 Ant bashing his head?  Not sure which catagory to put that in…